Sidecar

Ingredients

• • 2 oz cognac or brandy

  • 1 oz Cointreau

  • 1 oz (or less) fresh lemon juice

  • sugar for rim (optional)

Instructions

• 1. If desired, wet rim of cocktail glass with lemon and frost with sugar.

  2. Combine liquids in cocktail shaker half-filled with ice; shake and strain into chilled cocktail glass.

Notes

Supposedly this drink was invented in Paris during World War I when a captain who'd arrived at the bar after travelling in a sidecar through freezing winter weather asked for a drink to warm him up. My history with the drink only goes back as far as the days in the 1970's when we used to visit Great Aunt Ruthetta Owsley in Manhattan--she whipped up a pitcher of these every time we visited. I was too young to drink then, but I loved the crab salad (others claim it was lobster salad) she served with it. I will always think of us all crammed in that apartment, looking forward to whatever Broadway show she'd found tickets to or getting ready for an evening of Chinese food and a night of fire engine sirens, blasting heat from the radiator and icy wind from the window.